Chapter E: The Finale on the Pane

The finale is fought on the Pane's surface with the sky above and below (battle arena arena_heart_pane). It has two phases on every path: phase one is Ondine's mirrored chorus, and phase two is Iver's asymmetric shattering. What changes from path to path is whether the player is with each rite or against it.

Path	Phase one: the mirrored chorus	Phase two: the asymmetric shattering	Then
Help Ondine	With it. Guard the chorus from the Culet cut (`pane_chorus_guard`).	Against it. Stop Iver (`pane_shatter_stop`).	Sing the last note (4.18).
Help Iver	Against it. Break the chorus (`pane_chorus_break`).	With it. Cut the Pane while Ondine holds the last ward alone (`pane_shatter_join`).	Draw the last cut (4.18).
Stop both	Against it. Break the chorus (`pane_chorus_break`).	Against it. Stop Iver (`pane_shatter_stop`).	Hold the Pane (4.17).

There is no "with both" path, because the two rites undo each other.

Losing. Every finale battle can be lost (canLose: true, allowFlee: false). A loss restarts that phase from its start with a short line from Aske ("Again. Slower."). The story never branches on a loss (Idea).

The Pane rule

(Idea) On the Pane's surface the reflection answers every cast, and it answers each drawing tier differently. This is how both phases use the tiers. The rule holds for the whole finale, and the battle HUD shows it as the Pane gauge: a bar from Still (−100, left) to Shattered (+100, right), starting at 0.

What the player casts	How the reflection answers	In battle
Mirrored	The reflection agrees.	At 80% quality or better: +25% power, gauge 4 towards Still. Under 60%: half power ("the reflection answers wrongly"). Precision pays more than anywhere else in the game.
Parallel	The reflection moves with the world.	Normal power. Also pushes one hazard (a crack, a glint, a cutter's pick) across the surface and off the Pane, so it clears cracks. No gauge change.
Asymmetric	The reflection is told to become something else.	+25% power, gauge 6 towards Shattered.
A cross-side thread (one Evane part, one Facet part, either order)	Both answers at once.	Normal composite power, and the gauge moves 10 towards 0. The First Pair moves it 25 towards 0.

At −100 (Still) the Pane freezes: asymmetric casts fizzle until the gauge comes back above −80. At +100 (Shattered) a crack bursts: two glints climb out and the gauge drops back to +70. Each rite pushes the gauge its own way every few seconds, so the player is always working against one of them.

Phase one: the mirrored chorus

Where: arena_heart_pane. The chorus stands in a half-ring at the west edge of the stage (upper middle of the screen); Ondine conducts behind them.
When: act4.stage = 6, straight after the choice.
Who: Ondine (conducting, not targetable in phase one); the four voices: Tamsin (Wardens), Mother Bramble (Tenders), Keeper Hale (Keepers), Choirmistress Wen (Still Choir), or a mender in any head's place who sits the finale out (section 12); on the Ondine path, Culet cutters.
What happens:
- Against it (Iver and Stop-both paths): the chorus fights as one enemy with four voices. Each chorus beat (every 6 s) hits the player and pushes the gauge 8 towards Still. Each voice adds its faction's answer (section 12). A mirrored cast at 85% or better "sings over" the voice it targets and cancels that voice's next ability: the chorus can be beaten at its own game by precise mirrored drawing. Asymmetric casts hit harder but push the gauge towards Shattered, which helps the chorus by making it cast to compensate. When a voice breaks, that faction head steps out of the circle and kneels. (Idea) At tamsin.trust ≥ 3, Tamsin steps out on her own when the Wardens' voice drops below half, and the voice ends there.
- With it (Ondine path): the player stands at the centre of the circle, inside the four stones. The chorus is an ally with its own HP bar; three Culet cutters come one after another and attack the chorus, not the player. The player kills the cutters and keeps the gauge below 0: every mirrored cast at 80% or better is also a note in the chorus. If the chorus's bar empties, the phase restarts.
Player does: fight (cast); on the Ondine path, protect an ally.
Content to make: Encounters pane_chorus_break (enemy mirrored_chorus), pane_chorus_guard (ally mirrored_chorus_ally, enemies culet_cutter ×3 in waves). Yarn Act4_Finale_ChorusIntro (two lines before the battle, per path), Act4_Finale_TamsinStepsOut (a mid-battle bark, if the battle system allows lines during a fight; otherwise after it). Flags act4.phase = 1 on a win; tamsin.stepped_out = 1.
Art and audio: arena arena_heart_pane (section 10). Chorus voices: the four faction-head models in a ring, each with a glyph band glowing in their colour; Ondine in silver behind them. Cutters: Facet models with glass picks. VFX: chorus beats as a ring of pale light rolling across the Pane; "sung over" as the voice's glow inverting for a moment; the gauge's pull shown in the arena itself, with frost creeping in from the edges as it nears Still. Music: the mirrored chorus theme, building a voice at a time; a voice drops out as it breaks.
Screens used: battle HUD with the Pane gauge and, on the Ondine path, an ally bar (both new); spell book (pause).

Interlude: the companions

Where: arena_heart_pane between the phases (a cutscene in the arena, not the location).
When: act4.phase = 1.
Who: Tamsin, Rook, Ondine, Iver, the player.
What happens: The chorus is broken, or holding, and Iver takes his moment: the cutters start the shattering. Rook is on the cut line. At rook.trust ≥ 3, he looks at the player, sets his pick down, and walks off the line to stand behind them. On the Ondine path he does it anyway and says why ("Lio wanted this. I didn't ask her before. I'm asking now."). On the Iver path he stays, uneasy. Tamsin, if she stepped out in phase one, stands beside him (she can step out only on the Iver and Stop-both paths, so both stand together only on the Stop-both path). Whoever stepped out stands at the player's back for phase two: they don't fight (the battle has one player), but they speak, and each gives one boon (Idea): Tamsin's Brace at the start of the fight; Rook's Facet Seal once, at half HP.
Player does: watch; one choice ("Stay back." / "Stand with me.") if a companion stepped out.
Content to make: Yarn Act4_Finale_Interlude. Flags rook.stepped_out = 1; act4.boon_tamsin, act4.boon_rook (read by the phase-two encounter).
Art and audio: cutscene in the arena; a camera that turns over so the sky below is on top for a moment (Idea). Music: both themes stop; just the wind.
Screens used: dialogue box.

Phase two: the asymmetric shattering

Where: arena_heart_pane. Iver and the cut line at the east edge of the stage.
When: act4.phase = 1.
Who: Iver Kest (and the cutters as part of his pattern); on the Iver path, Prelate Ondine alone.
What happens:
- Against it (Ondine and Stop-both paths): Iver fights with the Culet cut behind him. Every 5 s a cut pushes the gauge 12 towards Shattered and opens a crack under the player, which deals damage every second until a mirrored cast at 70% or better seals it, or a parallel cast pushes it off the Pane. Iver's own spells are Facet: Bevel Lash ignores shields, so Brace and Facet Seal don't stop it, but Drift dodges it. Every third attack he draws Crown Surge, paying in his own blood, and his next cut lands for 40: Hush silences him through it, or Prism Snare stops it. At half HP he pulls his sleeves back and the player sees his sealed palms in close-up (a short cut-in), and his casting speeds up.
- With it (Iver path): Ondine, alone now that the chorus is broken, holds the last ward over the Pane's centre. The cutters work beside the player, and every 6 s a cut hurts her and pushes the gauge towards Shattered. Ondine is a Warden of Measure: her ward agrees with mirrored spells, so they do a quarter of their damage to her, and she hits back with a third of the biggest hit she took in the last 6 s. Parallel and asymmetric spells are the way through. She stays in her ward until the gauge reaches +100, then the ward breaks.
Player does: fight (cast), managing the gauge and the cracks.
Content to make: Encounters pane_shatter_stop (enemy iver_kest), pane_shatter_join (enemy prelate_ondine, allied cuts as an encounter script). Yarn Act4_Finale_IverHands (the cut-in at half HP), Act4_Finale_OndineWard. Flag act4.phase = 2 on a win.
Art and audio: Iver battle model with a sleeve-pull animation; cracks as decals on the arena floor with the sky showing through them; VFX for Iver's cuts (two different shapes at once, in amber, slashing the floor). Ondine battle model, with her ward as a dome of pale blue measuring lines. Music: the shattering theme; on the Iver path, the chorus theme under it in one thinning voice.
Screens used: battle HUD with the Pane gauge.

The hold (Stop-both path only)

Where: arena_heart_pane, the Pane's centre (Mark_heart); a field-cast sequence, not a battle.
When: act4.path = 3 and act4.phase = 2.
Who: the player at the centre; everyone else at the rims, watching. Aske at the south rim.
What happens: With both rites stopped halfway, the strain they put into the Pane comes back at once. The Pane swings between still and shattered, pulled one way by the chorus's unfinished stillness and the other by the cut's unfinished break. The player holds it by threading Evane into Facet, over and over, in the one stroke the First Pair showed them. Each good thread steadies the swing; the gauge narrows towards 0 and the surface goes calm in rings from the centre. When the hold takes, the Pane is cracked from rim to rim but standing, and the First Pair glyph shows under the surface in daylight for the first time.
Player does: cast threads (five good cross-side threads with the gauge in the middle band, −30 to +30). Misses cost nothing but time, as with <<prompt_cast>>. The First Pair counts double. Without it, any cross-side thread works, including Thaw (thaw, Repel into Pavilion Wake) from Act 3.
Content to make: Yarn Act4_Finale_Hold with a new <<hold_pane>> command (a field-cast sequence: the gauge swings on its own, the player threads composites, and a cross-side thread at 60% or better steadies it). Flags act4.phase = 3.
Art and audio: VFX: the swing (frost sweeping in from the west, cracks sweeping in from the east, meeting at the player); each good thread sends a calm ring outwards; the First Pair glyph lighting under the whole Pane at the end. Music: the hold theme, where the chorus theme and the shattering theme play together in counterpoint for the first time, in agreement.
Screens used: field cast (threading, with the Pane gauge).

The last note, the last cut, the hold: the outcome

Where: heart_pane (back in the location): the Pane's centre, then the south rim.
When: act4.phase = 2 (paths 1 and 2) or 3 (path 3).
Who: everyone.
What happens:
- Mended (path 1): the player sings the last note, a forced mirrored cast at the centre. The Pane goes still all the way down, and across the Shardfield every shard's reflected sky turns into the same sky. On the east rim the lantern line goes dark lamp by lamp. Ondine lowers her hands and finds she cannot lift them to cast again (Idea: the Measure takes its cost from the one who asked for it). She accepts it.
- Shattered (path 2): the player and Iver draw the last cut together, an asymmetric forced cast. The Pane breaks with a sound that every caster in Velan hears, as they heard the first Repel. Its pieces lift into the air and every glyph that was held in it scatters as light over the Shardfield. Iver's palms are clean. On the west rim the menders' glyph bands flicker.
- Held (path 3): the Pane stands. The two camps look at each other across a cracked mirror. Nobody cheers. Ondine and Iver each walk to the centre and stop well apart; neither says the other was right. Aske pours the kettle out on the fire.
Player does: cast (paths 1 and 2: a forced cast); watch; talk to Aske at the rim.
Content to make: Yarn Act4_Outcome_Mended (<<prompt_cast_style mirrored>>), Act4_Outcome_Shattered (<<prompt_cast pavilion_wake>> or any learned asymmetric spell), Act4_Outcome_Held, Act4_Outcome_Aske. Flags: act4.outcome = 1, 2 or 3; act4.stage = 7. Reputation (section 9): Mended rep.evane +20, rep.facets −20; Shattered the reverse (rep.evane −20, rep.facets +20); Held +10 with each side, and morality +5 if both companions stepped out.
Art and audio: three outcome VFX sets: the Pane stilling (a wave of flatness across the whole Shardfield), shattering (pieces rising, glyph-light scattering), holding (rim-to-rim cracks frozen in place, the First Pair glyph lit). Music: each outcome gets its own resolution of the Pane theme: in unison (Mended), split into fragments (Shattered), or two lines ending on different notes that still agree (Held).
Screens used: field cast; dialogue box.

From Walkthrough: Act 4 › Chapter E: The Finale on the Pane